You can find out your ancestry at the State Archives of the Vitebsk Region

Perhaps each of us is interested in who our ancestors were, who lived, say, in the 18th-19th centuries or even earlier. What if we are of "blue" blood?.. To find out how realistic our fantasies are and to research our genealogy, we will have to work hard.

Tips for beginner researchers

– To restore the missing branches of the genealogical tree, you first need to study home archival documents, interview relatives, and close people, – said Tatiana Buevich, Deputy Director of the State Archives of the Vitebsk Region, about the first steps. – You should contact the archive only if you want to get documentary confirmation of your family history.

Where and in which archives can you find information about your relatives? What do you need to know for this? About this and much more from the specialist.

The more informed you are, the easier it is to search

In addition to the surname, name, and patronymic of your ancestors, it is desirable to know the approximate years of their birth and death, at least how old they were at that time, as well as their place of birth or residence, religion, social status, or occupation. All this information will be useful when working with archival documents.

– If you only indicated "Ivanov Petr Sidorovich" in your request, we will refuse to fulfill it. Our archive stores documents of institutions, organizations, and enterprises. And searching for information about a person is possible only if they are somehow connected with them. If the place of work is indicated in the request and the documents are freely accessible, then we search for all people with that name and provide information about them, and you will figure out which of them is your ancestor. The task of archivists is to respond to a specific request. You can also contact the archives of other states, but it is desirable to send the request in the language of the country you are writing to, – clarified Tatiana Buevich.

Incidentally, if the country whose archive you are applying to for information has not signed the Minsk Convention on Legal Aid and Legal Relations in Civil, Family and Criminal Cases of January 22, 1993, which governs document flow, including on these issues, then, most likely, you will be informed about this, and no one will answer your questions.

– The most difficult thing in genealogy is the lack of free access to documents related to the secrecy of personal life, and this is precisely what interests people the most: birth, adoption, marriage, death, health status, religious beliefs, criminal record, – shared Tatiana Vladimirovna. – The restriction on them is 75 years. Until this period expires, documents concerning a citizen's personal life secrecy can only be requested by the citizen themselves or their heirs. Such information is also provided to non-family members, but only with the official consent of the citizen or their heir. To date, information up to 1938 is open without restriction.

Let's look into the personal file

When you want to find something in an archive, it is important to know not only what to look for, but also where it might be located. State archives in Belarus have a certain number of documents that can be used for genealogical research.

For example, personal files of employees, which are processed by HR departments, contain such information. These documents should be sought at the place of work. Each personal file contains an autobiography, where a person provides information not only about themselves but also about their close relatives. During the employment period, other documents are accumulated: references, information about education, awards. Personal files are stored for up to 75 years, and some (of managers, doctors and candidates of sciences, etc.) may eventually be transferred to the state archive for permanent storage. By finding such a folder, you may discover information about your relatives.

– Many institutions have their own archives, which you also, keeping in mind the requirements for protecting the secrecy of personal life, have the right to apply to in search of your roots, – Tatiana Vladimirovna continued.

The Vitebsk branch of Belarusian Railways has a departmental archive, the Vitebsk Notary District has a notarial archive, and the main justice department of the regional executive committee has a sector for the archive of bodies registering civil status acts in the region. Records made in Vitebsk region since 1945 are concentrated here. Unfortunately, archival materials about the pre-war life of the region have only been partially preserved.

– Each religious denomination kept its own metric books, where the births, marriages, and deaths of all parishioners were registered, – specified Tatyana Buyevich. – When contacting historical archives, it is necessary to know the exact religious denomination and place of residence of the relative, otherwise there is little chance of finding the necessary information.

The majority of Soviet citizens were members of the CPSU. The regional state archive stores cases of admission to party membership of those communists who joined its ranks in the Vitebsk region; information about relatives may also be found there.

It is also worth paying attention to documents reflecting materials from household population censuses (revisions carried out in the Russian Empire to account for poll tax payers). In Belarus, such an action was first carried out in 1782.

Personal files of law enforcement officers and military personnel may be located in the archives of either the Ministry of Internal Affairs or the Ministry of Defense, both in Belarus and in Russia, depending on when they served.

Information about a person whose fate was broken by political repression or who was taken to Germany may be found in the KGB archives and state archives (filtration cases).

– Our institution also stores information about people who unjustly suffered from political repression in the 1920s-1930s and were subsequently rehabilitated, – said Tatyana Vladimirovna.

Archives on the Internet

If the search concerns the period of the Great Patriotic War, documents can be found in the National Archives of the Republic of Belarus (on the partisan movement), and others – in the central archive of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation in Podolsk, Moscow region. Documents of German occupiers and collaborationist authorities have been partially preserved in Belarusian archives. In addition, the World Wide Web came to the rescue.

– Russians have created three huge databases and posted them on the Internet. The generalized database "Memorial" (www.obd-memorial.ru) contains information about the defenders of the Fatherland who died and went missing during the Great Patriotic War and in the post-war period. The electronic database of documents "The Feat of the People in the Great Patriotic War of 1941–1945" (www.podvignaroda.mil.ru) and the portal of World War II documents "Memory of the People" (www.pamyat-naroda.ru) are operational. German organizations also publish lists of Soviet prisoners of war who died in camps, – said the archivist.

Various data on the genealogy of the Jewish population can be found on the pages www.jewishgen.org/Belarus and www.rtrfoundation.org.

There are websites on the Internet where experienced searchers exchange and share accumulated information and help novice researchers in every way.

Territorial Criterion is Important

To combine documents into funds, not only production or thematic-chronological criteria are used, but also territorial ones. In different historical periods, parts of Belarus were part of various state formations. Taking into account the history of the administrative-territorial division of the republic, one should contact either the archives of the Vitebsk region or institutions of other regions and even countries.

– For example, Belarus has two National Historical Archives: the Minsk archive holds documents of regions that were part of the BSSR before 1939, and the Grodno archive holds documents of the territory that only joined in 1939, – explained Tatyana Buevich.

Reference information on the administrative-territorial division of Belarus over the last two centuries is presented on the website "Archives of Belarus" www.arhives.gov.by. There you can also find a list of genealogical documents stored in state archives and a list of archives of the Vitebsk region. Information about archival institutions of the region is also posted on the website of the main justice department of the regional executive committee www.vitebskjust.gov.by.

Specialists will advise

There are different types of requests. Thematic requests involve conducting research on the history of a locality or institution. Archivists compile lists of documents on topics covering specific geographical and chronological boundaries. Socio-legal requests confirm facts of residence, study, work, and so on. Biographical requests help to pinpoint or confirm some episode of a person's life: date of birth, marriage, death, nationality.

– Sometimes genealogy is confused with genealogical requests. Genealogy studies family ties, we do not engage in this, we only state what is recorded. If we find a family tree in the text of some document, we will write about it, but we do not draw conclusions ourselves about who married whom or whose grandson you are. What was put on paper at the time, that's what it will tell. Therefore, if you wish to preserve information about your relatives, write family chronicles. Otherwise, a person dies, and the information goes with them.

If you know where to apply, you can send a request there. At the same time, you must remember that its fulfillment will have to be paid for according to the approved price list. Alternatively, you can go there yourself and work with documents in the reading room on-site – this is free of charge. Of course, archive employees will advise you on where, what, and how to search if you can provide them with the minimum required information, the specialist explained.

Family chroniclers who seriously research the history of their lineage sometimes spend decades on it. Digging into the depths of centuries is not easy, but very interesting! As the Roman philosopher Seneca said, the road is mastered by the walker.

Elena ALIMOVA, "Vitebskiye Vesti".